If you haven’t seen the movie Inside Out yet, we have some great reasons to share this movie with your autistic child. As parents of boys who have high functioning autism, it is always nice to find something in pop culture that can be used to reach them on a new or different level. Inside Out has become one of the best movies in recent years to help talk about emotions, emotional health and even mental health in regards to depression. We’ve found several ways that this applies to our family and sons specifically about some of the problems that arise with autism.
Reasons To Share Inside Out With Your Child With Autism
Inside Out follows the story of 11-year-old Riley and her emotions: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust. While you watch Riley facing different events in her life, you see the, “behind the scenes” of how her emotions deal with each event.
I won’t give spoilers, but you will find this movie is great for reaching out to your autistic child on a different level. Since emotions are such a big part of dealing with high functioning autism, these characters can easily help your child recognize what they are feeling and why. Especially with those difficult to express emotions like Anger, Fear, Sadness and even Disgust.
Inside Out is an easy way to teach your kids that multiple emotions work together for good. In daily life, you may face things like extreme excitement about your kids show about their favorite things. Whether it is a bit “over the top” about a television show, video game or an upcoming vacation, we’ve all dealt with a child who lets “Joy” take the top spot in their emotional spectrum. When it comes to that age-old question of, “would you jump off that bridge?”, you may have a child who would jump without thinking twice because the excitement and joy overtakes the fear and caution that would make them reconsider.
As we learn in the movie, there are times when Joy needs to step back and let something else take control. Fear alongside Joy helps give your child a healthy amount of caution when doing new or potentially dangerous things. Sadness can help us to reach out to others, have compassion or together with Joy recall memories of good things in our past. Our emotions have to work together to create overall emotional stability. Make sure your kids know that a little fear, disgust, sadness, joy or anger is okay as long as they can allow them all to play the right part in their lives and not take over.
Everyone feels let down or left out; some just hide it better than others. When you meet Riley in this movie, you think she is of course a happy, outgoing and popular kid. Your child may feel like she is someone they can’t relate to. As you go through the movie, you’ll find more and more ways to show them that even the smart kid, athletic kid, cute kid, or popular kid can feel left out or let down. That even the kid that seems to be so, “normal” can have all of those same emotions that he or she may have when they don’t fit into things like other kids seem to.
Depression is something everyone feels sometimes. Mental and emotional health are so important, and Inside Out helps you to teach your children that depression is something that everyone feels sometimes. It is hard. It isn’t easy. It’s never fun, but it does happen. Knowing that they aren’t the only kids that feel down or sad will help them to understand how to find the good in things easier. While clinical depression should be treated appropriately, the sadness and disappointment that comes with daily things happen to everyone and your child should know they aren’t alone with those feelings.
Remind your kids that there are no bad emotions. This is one of the biggest things that we face with autistic children. People who don’t walk this walk each day don’t want to accept that our kids may have a broad range of emotional responses that aren’t, “normal” to others. This movie will show your children that contrary to popular belief – there are no bad emotions. All emotions have a purpose; it’s okay to be angry, sad, fearful, disgusted and, of course, happy or joyous. Sometimes there is a wrong time or place to express a particular emotion, but that is something we all have to learn as we experience new things and grow. Even adults.
Working with your child to help them to understand all of their emotions and how to cope with those emotions is one of the hardest parts of being a parent, especially a parent of an autistic child. Watching one child cope quickly, while another struggle so much can be heartbreaking. Inside Out is a great way to bring up emotions with you kids in an easy way they can understand.
Get more tips on using the movie Inside Out movie with dealing on emotions (including a game and a printable) here.
And while you’re enjoying this movie, don’t forget your Inside Out Cupcakes!
Disney: How Inside Out Movie Connects With Autism & Inside Out FUN Activities
Courtney says
Our autistic 4-year-old LOVES Inside Out! We read it every night. Thanks for sharing!